


Thunderstorms, Clouds, Snow, and a Slight Drizzle

by aNerdObsessed



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, But It's Pretty Dang Close, Christmas Christmas Time is Here, F/M, Fluff, Fluff & Angst, Hot Chocolate, Snow Angels, This is Not a Hallmark Movie, Ugly Christmas Sweaters, walking in a winter wonderland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 12:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16854055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aNerdObsessed/pseuds/aNerdObsessed
Summary: Rey would rather be just about anywhere else than Poe's ugly Christmas sweater party on Christmas Eve - well, actually, she'd rather be at home enjoying a good book with a cup of hot chocolate. Turns out someone else at the party is of the same mind





	Thunderstorms, Clouds, Snow, and a Slight Drizzle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shewhospeakswiththunder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewhospeakswiththunder/gifts).



> _And I will say that we should take a day to break away_    
>  _From all the pain our brain has made_    
>  _The game is not played alone_    
>  _And I will say that we should take a moment and hold it_    
>  _And keep it frozen and know that life has a hopeful undertone_    
>  _Am I the only one I know_    
>  _Waging my wars behind my face and above my throat_    
>  _Shadows will scream that I'm alone_    
>  _But I know, we've made it this far... kid_  
> 
> "Migraine" by Twenty One Pilots 

"What is this? I distinctly remember saying no glitter in the apartment!” Rey crossed her arms and glared at her roommate, who was sitting at their kitchen table surrounded by a sea of red and green crafting supplies.

“Sorry,” Rose said, unapologetic, “it was necessary.”

Rey stepped gingerly into the kitchen, already anticipating the stray glitter that they would inadvertently track into every room and that would become permanently embedded into the carpet. “How’s it coming?”

“It’s going great. Wanna see?” Rose held up an oversized sweater colored the exact shade of a green Crayola crayon that was covered in an inordinate amount of tinsel and dangling ball ornaments.

“It’s... hideous.”

“Thank you,” Rose beamed, setting it down on a pile of felt and cotton balls. “It takes skill to create something so aesthetically displeasing.”

“I’m sure,” Rey muttered, peeling off her fuzzy socks before daring to cross the glittery linoleum to reach the fridge. She opened it up and pulled out the last of the cider. She had to stretch up on tiptoe to reach into the cupboard next to the fridge for her favorite giant mug.

“Why don’t you use one of the Christmas mugs I purposely put on the lower shelf?” Rose accused as she plugged in her glue gun. “It’s more festive. It’s Christmas Eve, for goodness’ sake.”

 “Because  _this_  is my mug. And it’s cheerful, see?” Rey pointed to the hand-painted sun’s smiley face. “Plenty festive.” She poured in the cider, tossing the empty jug into the recycling basket before setting the mug in the microwave for two minutes. Rey leaned against the counter as she waited, watching Rose work.

“Do you think you’ll be finished in time?” Rey inquired casually, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe Rose hadn’t gotten around to doing her sweater yet, and she’d end up having to stay home. Not that she didn’t want to hang out with her friends, but knowing Poe he’d have invited everyone and their brother to his house.

“Yup! This one’s yours, and I’ve just got to finish Finn’s and then we’re all set. You should try yours on to make sure the lights work.”

“The lights?”

Rose set down the handful of cotton balls and the glue gun she’d been using on Finn’s sweater and leaned over to pick up the green one. “You’re a Christmas tree, so of course it has to light up.” She triggered the string of lights fastened to inside of the knit pullover so that they blinked merrily.

Rey groaned. “Isn’t that a fire hazard?”

Rose tossed the sweater down and pointed a stern finger at Rey. “You’re not getting out of this.”

The microwave beeped, and Rey turned to pull out the steaming mug, wrapping her cold fingers around it with a sigh. “Why does Poe have to have an ugly sweater party? Couldn’t it just be a normal Christmas Eve party?”

“You’ll have fun,” Rose assured her, returning her attention to the final touches on Finn’s sweater. “Just relax.”

“I’m relaxed,” Rey scoffed as a knock came on their front door.

“Could you get that?” Rose asked, her nose scrunched as she glued another cotton ball precisely in place on one of the sleeves.

“Sure.” Rey pushed herself off the counter, setting the mug down, and walked into the living room where the front door was. She peered through the peephole before opening it wide to admit Finn.

“Hey, peanut.” He grinned, pulling her in for a hug.

“Hey, Finn.”

“Babe, is that you?” Rose called from the kitchen.

“Yes,” Finn called back. “Sorry, I’m a little early, but I couldn’t stay away any longer.”

Rose appeared smiling in the living room and Finn promptly gave her a long kiss, getting infected with glitter from Rose’s hands in the process.

“Wow,” Rey interjected. “Keep it PG, you guys. Young children are present.” The couple ignored her as she rolled her eyes.

“How’s my favorite grad student?” Rose asked after she broke away, trying fruitlessly to brush the glitter off his jacket.

“Better now that I’m with you,” Finn answered with a silly grin.

Rey groaned. “Hello, third wheel feeling lonely over here.”

Finn frowned at her. “You’re not a third wheel. More like a... an independent wheel.”

“So I’m a unicycle,” Rey stated.

“Kill the metaphor,” Rose interrupted. “You’re not spending Christmas Eve alone. That’s why we’re all going to the party.”

Rey knew that she really should go. Poe had made it a tradition during their undergrad years to host a party on Christmas Eve for everyone who didn’t have anywhere else to go, which was one reason the idea made her cringe. The first year, they had been surprised at how many people had been stuck on campus over the holidays. After graduation, most of their friend group had ended up sticking around Alderaan University for some reason or another, and so Poe had decided to keep up the tradition. He even invited some of the undergrads who they’d known before graduation or that he had met in his job as an admissions counselor.

Rey really was grateful that she still had close friends to hang out with, even if her loner tendencies and her holiday melancholy made her slightly dread the party that night. Finn had started his Master’s in Psychology, so he kept living in the house along with Poe. Rose was finishing up her engineering major to get her Bachelor’s, while Rey had an amazing but unpaid internship with Resistance Technologies in town. Both girls worked at Chewie’s garage in their free time to cover the rent for their apartment and other associated costs with being a living, breathing member of Gen Z. 

“I know,” Rey acquiesced. “I bought the sweaters for you to mangle, didn’t I?”

“Ooo, are they done?” Finn asked eagerly.

“Yes, I just finished. Come look!” Rose took his hand and dragged him to the kitchen, Rey trailing behind. “Close your eyes, Finn.”

Finn obeyed. “Please don’t stab me or something.”

Rose laughed and snatched up the cotton ball-coated sweater and slipped it over his head.

“Okay, open!”

Finn looked down at himself. “Wow, babe. It’s horrifying.”

The entire surface was covered with puffs of cotton that had been dusted in shimmery white glitter. Four black squares of felt had been secured in a line up the front to represent chunks of coal, and long brown strips were glued down the sleeves for the stick arms.

“You make the best ugly snowman,” Rose agreed, admiring her work with a pleased smile. 

“I kind of don’t want to take it off,” Finn said, tentatively brushing his fingers down the front.

“Probably best not to touch it,” Rose observed as a cotton ball worked loose.

“Sorry,” Finn said, shoving it back in place. “What do the others look like?”

“Like decomposed Christmas,” Rey snipped.

“Aw, thanks,” Rose responded.

“You all about ready to go?” Finn asked. “I know I said I’m early, but I figured I could recruit you to help Poe decorate our place if you were done with the sweaters.”

Rey glanced down at her leggings and ratty t-shirt. “I need fifteen minutes, minimum.”

“Give us a second, babe.” Rose stood on her toes to press another kiss to Finn’s lips. “We’ll be right there.”

~---~

“So.” Poe stood in the doorway between the living room and the dining room at their house, a bit of greenery dangling from his fingers. “Is mistletoe too cliché?”

Rey looked up from where she was winding a shimmery green streamer around the banister. “It’s an ugly sweater party. It’s already cliché.”

“But is it  _too_  cliché?”

“No mistletoe!” Rose came into the foyer. “This isn’t a Hallmark movie.”

Poe gasped. “Next year’s theme: Hallmark clichés.”

“Please, no,” Rey groaned, straightening up from where she’d finished decorating the staircase.

Poe set the mistletoe reverently in the box at his feet. “Sorry, mistletoe, next year you’ll be the star of the show.”

“Are you all done out here?” Rose asked, her eyes wandering around the entryway. “It’s almost six.”

“I think so,” Poe answered. “You good, Rey?” 

“Yup.” She scratched the back of her neck where the tinsel on her sweater was tickling her skin.

“Awesome. Finn!” Poe hollered towards the kitchen. “How’s the food coming?”

“Pigs-in-a-blanket are done in two minutes!”

“Yes!” Poe cheered. “Come on, gang, let’s go test them out to see if we can serve them to the general public.”

An hour later, and the house was packed. Rey was glad Finn had picked up her and Rose up early because it allowed her to adjust to the size of the crowd as it grew, each person dressed in a decidedly ugly Christmas sweater that would make any fashion designer worth their stitches gag in disgust.

And there was a lot of people. Rey recognized a few from her time as an undergrad at Alderaan University or from hanging out with Poe and Finn, but there were many more she didn’t recognize. Rose had insisted she turn on the lights wired in her sweater so that it was blinking obnoxiously, making it hard to disappear. Several people complimented Rey on her sweater although she tried to deflect the adulation to Rose, who beamed every time someone praised her ugly creations. 

Still, it was a little overwhelming, and Rey soon found herself in a corner, nursing a cup of eggnog that was sadly lacking in alcohol. She was in a good position to see most of the ground floor, however, and so Rey decided to amuse herself with people-watching. 

Poe was practically crowd-surfing, completely in his element. His sweater was covered in ribbons and bows, claiming that he was “a gift to humanity.” He laughed and joked and chatted with everyone who came in the door, making introductions and conducting conversations without any conscious effort. Rey envied him for his ease interacting with others as he stood at the focal point of the crowd. When he noticed her looking, Poe winked at her across the room and beckoned her over, but Rey just shook her head with a small smile.

Rey’s attention moved to her other friends, finding them sitting at the island in the open kitchen. Rose and Finn were adorable per usual, making moon-eyes at each other. When they started feeding each other bites of chocolate covered pretzel that Finn had made earlier that afternoon, Rey couldn’t help but snort in amusement. They were entirely too cute for their own good. 

Then someone else snagged her gaze as he creeped into the kitchen. Dressed all in black, hunched in on himself, he opened the fridge door and peered inside. 

Honestly, Rey had forgotten he lived here. Ben Solo was Finn and Poe’s third roommate, but he rarely if ever came when they went out as a group. Rey wasn’t sure how Ben had even become friends with Poe and Finn, but Poe explained that he was an excellent wingman: dark and broody to draw the girls in, at least until they discovered he wasn’t exactly friendly most of the time and Poe could swoop in with his trademark charm. Poe had also told Rey that he was completing his fifth year at Alderaan, which Poe had termed a victory lap but Rey couldn’t help but think of as a walk of shame. 

Rey had probably spoken five words to Ben previously, but now, suddenly, she found herself angry at him.

Here she was, wearing a horrible, gaudy sweater, surrounded by a sea of semi-strangers, drinking a beverage that lacked the alcohol to make the calories worthwhile, all in an effort to mollify her friends when she’d much rather have spent a quiet Christmas Eve at her apartment snuggled on the couch re-reading  _The Lord of the Rings_.

And there Ben was, dressed in sweats and a hoodie that probably wasn’t at all itchy, ignoring the excited crowd filling his home, taking a box of likely delicious leftover pizza out of the fridge. Rey frowned. It was his house; he was practically hosting this party. Why the hell did he get to hide upstairs?

Rey didn’t realize she was glaring at him until he looked up and caught her eyes, surprise flickering across his face. Embarrassed, she pulled out her phone and pretended to check her Instagram feed which was already filling with pictures of this party, taking a hasty sip of her eggnog.

“Rey.”

Rey jumped, looking up to find Ben Solo looming over her. He must have put the pizza box back because his hands were empty, hanging awkwardly at his sides.

“Oh,” Rey squeaked. “Hi, Ben, sorry, I didn’t see you.”

“Um, I think you did see me. Actually, it kind of seemed like you were trying kill me with your eyes from across the room.”

“Oh, uh -”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Yes.” Rey was startled by her own vehemence. She shoved her phone back in her pocket. “Why aren’t you wearing an ugly Christmas sweater like everyone else?”

Ben raised his eyebrows, looking over the lights blinking all over her front. “Because they’re ugly?”

“Well, obviously,” Rey scoffed. “That’s the idea.”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Why are you hiding upstairs?”

“Why are you hiding in the corner?”

“I’m not hiding. I’m taking a break from, you know, people.”

“Me too.”

“But you haven’t even been downstairs at all since I got here.”

“Exactly. I think that means I’m doing a better job of hiding.”

Rey didn’t want to let go of her outrage quite yet, but the way the corner of his mouth was twitching up in a half-smile made him look almost too sweet for her to stay angry.

“You want to go for a walk?” he asked abruptly.

“What?”

“I’d invite you upstairs, but that seems kind of creepy. And anyway, you can still hear the party upstairs so it’s not much better than your corner.”

Rey considered. Although she didn’t really know him, Rey was confident that Poe and Finn wouldn’t room with a murderer, and anyway Rey did kind of want to get out of the house where she felt like she was slowly suffocating.

“Sure, let me just grab my coat.”

His posture relaxes slightly. “Yeah, me too. Mine's upstairs; meet me by the front door?”

“Okay.”

A minute later after a brief explanation of her plans to an astounded Rose, Rey was shoving her feet into her boots, the lights on the hideous sweater switched off and hidden underneath her thick winter coat. Ben came bounding down the stairs, wearing an unsurprisingly black coat and dark-wash jeans.

“You still want to go?” he asked, his tone almost uncertain.

“Yup!” Rey straightened from adjusting her boot laces.

Ben pulled open the door for her and they went outside, not seeing their friends exchange significant glances as he slammed it shut behind them.

Outside, Rey blew out her breath so it fogged in a cloud in front of her. The air was crisp and cold while fluffy snowflakes drifted to earth, settling on the thick layer of white that had been laid down earlier that week. It almost seemed like midnight because was already so dark so early in the evening; the streetlights and porch lights that reflected faintly off the low-hanging clouds illuminated the night. 

Ben shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sorry, I didn’t know it was snowing. Do you want to go back inside?”

Rey turned to give him a look. “Why do you keep trying to get out of this?”

“I’m not,” he said, his nose already beginning to pink in the cold. “I’m just trying to give you an out.”

Rey shook her head and started down the sidewalk and Ben followed a few steps behind. “Do you think I need one?” she asked.

He caught up to her in two big strides so they were walking side by side. “I guess so. I wasn’t really expecting you to actually agree to walk with me.”

“You underestimate how badly I wanted to get out of there.”

“Oh, thanks. Here I thought you just wanted to spend some time in my company,” Ben joked. She noticed that he wasn’t wearing a hat and the snowflakes were sticking to his long dark hair. Not that she was specifically looking at his hair.

“Are you trying to guilt-trip me?”

“No. Maybe.” That small half-smile was back. Rey liked it.

“Well, maybe I would want to spend time with you, if I actually knew you.”

The half-smile grew. “You think?”

“Sure. We can start from the beginning,” Rey said, not knowing where this sudden burst of social confidence was coming from. By some miracle, she was making conversation with a half-stranger, which usually was even harder than a total stranger for some twisted reason. She stuck out a hand. “Hi, I’m Rey. I live with Rose and I’m an intern at Resistance Tech, and I hate ugly Christmas sweater parties.”

“I know,” Ben said. His cheeks became redder than could be attributed to the winter air as the silence stretched.

“You’re supposed to tell me things about yourself,” Rey chided, extending her hand a little more. He turned slightly towards her, taking it hesitantly.

“Ben. Senior English major at Alderaan. Also hate ugly sweater parties. And that’s about it.”

“Fifth year, right?” Rey inquired, remembering what Poe had said, then immediately regretted it. She wasn’t sure if it was sore point with him that he hadn’t finished in four years. 

He shoved his hand back in his pocket. “Yeah. Changing your major junior year can kind of screw over your degree plan.”

“Why’d you switch? If you don’t mind me asking.”

He shrugged. “Realized if I was going to have a career, it should probably be in something I actually cared about rather than what my parents and mentor cared about.”

“I can see that,” Rey said. She didn’t have much experience with mentors and parents, but she did recognize the logic in what Ben had said. “What were you before?”

“Political science and history. Kept history as a minor, but dumped PoliSci. Careful, it’s slippery,” Ben warned, reaching out and grabbing her arm to pull her around a patch of ice on the sidewalk.

“Thanks,” Rey said, knowing her boots lacked sufficient traction for winter weather. “What are you going to do with English?”

“I don’t know,” he said, letting go of her arm. “I’ll probably just live off my trust fund.”

Rey laughed, then remembered what Poe had said about his mother being on the board of the university. “Wait, do you actually have a trust fund?”

He snorted, his face covered in odd shadows from the streetlights. “No. It just seemed to fit the loser asshole who isn’t with his family on Christmas Eve stereotype.”

“Is that what you think of yourself?” Rey asked quietly, recognizing the shell of self-deprecation covering something deeper.

Ben shrugged. “What about you? Engineering?”

For Rey, engineering wasn’t something she’d really chosen – it just fit with her experience growing up and her academic strengths. She didn’t hate it, but she didn’t love it either. 

“It’s alright, I guess. It just kind of made sense and I’ve never really considered anything else. I’m hoping after this internship at Resistance Tech that I’ll get a job offer. I think they like me, so fingers crossed.”

Ben nodded. “You’ll get the job. Poe seems to think you’re the best person alive so I’m sure they think so too.”

The snow was becoming thicker, dimming the glow of the streetlights. “Poe thinks a lot of people are the best person alive.”

“Yeah, I guess his opinion isn’t worth much, is it?”

Rey snickered. “Not really. Thanks for trying though.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’re not half-bad.”

Rey glanced at Ben, who seemed to hunch over himself even as he tossed her a tentative smile. On an impulse, she reached out and touched his arm, pulling them to a stop and meeting his startled, dark eyes. “Neither are you.”

Rey didn’t know how long they’d been standing there when she realized they were gazing at each other in the middle of a dark street, the snow whispering as it fell softly. She pulled away, her cheeks burning, frantically trying to think of something to break the tension. Rey noticed they had arrived at a park near her apartment, the trees bare and edged in white.

“Let’s make snow angels,” Rey said brightly, stepping back to put distance between them.

Ben shook himself as if waking from a trance. “What?”

“You know, snow angels.”

“I know what snow angels are, Rey. I’m just not seven years old anymore.”

“Oh, come on,” she wheedled, walking off the sidewalk into the park where the snow was almost a foot deep. “No ugly sweater parties, no snow angels. Do you ever have any fun?”

“Says the girl who was hiding in a corner at said party.”

“I never approved of the sweaters. That was actually a bad idea.” Rey sat down in the snow with a puff of white, patting the snow next to her. “Come on. You know you want to.”

Ben huddled deeper in his jacket, tucking his chin into the scarf around his neck. “It’s cold.”

“Ben. Sit down.”

He obeyed with a faint pout on his lips – not that Rey had been looking at them or anything. 

“Alright, now lay back.” 

Together, they fell back in the snow, staring up at the clouds through thousands of drifting snowflakes. Rey stuck out her tongue, catching one of the flakes that melted instantly on the tip. 

“You like snow,” Ben observed.

“Yeah. Where I grew up it was always hot and dry, so I didn’t get to see my first snow until I moved up here.”

“Ah.”

Rey waited, anticipating the usual follow up questions, but Ben must have sensed her unease because he didn’t press further.

"So, we making snow angels?” he asked after a moment.

They began to swing their arms and legs, creating angel-shaped silhouettes in the snow. Rey couldn’t help but laugh at the childish feeling.

Until Ben accidentally shoveled a pile of snow over her face. He jumped to his feet, apologies spilling out as he reached down a hand to pull Rey up. 

“Shit, sorry, I’m such an awkward klutz,” Ben said, brushing the snow off her hair and shoulders, which only caused more to fall into the collar of her jacket and melt down her neck. Rey shivered even as she laughed.

“Don’t worry about it,” she assured him, trying to smile with chattering teeth. “It’s karma for forcing you make snow angels.” 

“We should get you inside,” Ben decided, a wrinkle between his eyebrows. “I think you’re turning blue.”

“Wow, my snow angel looks so tiny compared to yours.”

“Rey, you’re going to get hypothermia. You’re freezing.”

“Okay, fine.” 

He took her hand and started pulling her back the way they’d come.

“Um, we could go to my place,” Rey offered. “It’s closer to here.”

Ben halted in his tracks. 

Rey winced, analyzing her statement in post to try and determine if it was too suggestive. “Sorry, too weird?”

“No, no, let’s go. Which way?”

~---~

It took them only five minutes to walk the rest of the way to her apartment, and only a minute for Rey to go to her room and strip out of her cold, wet clothes and exchange them for something much more comfortable. Rey emerged, dry if not warm, and went to the living room where Ben was still standing awkwardly, as if he didn’t want to touch anything. 

“I’ll take your coat and gloves and throw them in the dryer if you want,” she suggested.

“Oh, sure, thanks.” He began to shuck his wet outer garments, which Rey collected and took to the closet where their tiny washer-dryer unit was tucked away. 

“Do you want something warm to drink?”

“Sure.”

Rey went into the kitchen after starting the dryer. “Sorry, we’re all out of cider. All I have is tea, coffee, and hot cocoa,” she called to Ben as she rummaged through the cabinets.

“I’ll take hot chocolate.”

Rey stuck her head through the doorway to see him scrunched on her couch. “Really? You didn’t strike me as the kind of guy to have a sweet tooth.”

“The darkness of hot chocolate matches my soul,” he deadpanned.

She snickered and poured out two mugs of milk before setting them in the microwave to heat up. She waited silently in the kitchen, still shivering despite the thick hoodie and fleece leggings she’d found to wear. There was no sound from the living room, and Rey knew she’d have to come up with something for them to do besides sip hot cocoa on her couch or this would get awkward.

Once Rey had stirred the packets of chocolate powder into the hot milk, she carried both mugs into the living room.

“Here you go.”

Ben accepted it, taking a quick sip although his gaze was wandering around the room. “You have a nice place,” he complimented, studying the Christmas decorations and crafty trinkets covering the walls. 

“That’s all Rose,” Rey admitted. “I’m not much for home décor. It wasn’t a thing in most of the homes I was placed in growing up, and now I just don’t feel like trying.” She stared down at her hot cocoa. “Just another way the system left a lasting impression, I guess. It doesn’t bother me anymore, though.”

Ben didn’t say anything, just fixed his serious eyes on her. Rey settled back into the couch cushions, tucking her feet underneath her and cradling the warm mug in her hands. She wasn’t sure what about him provoked this self-psychoanalysis, but Ben felt comfortable and safe, like he would understand.

“I met this woman once, briefly, and she said that the belonging you seek is not behind, it’s ahead.” Rey looked up to find his eyes thoughtful, a hint of a frown on his face. She hastened to explain, “I don’t think that means we should destroy our past, but we can’t fix it either. We should keep moving forward, building better things with what we have now.”

Ben’s eyes broke away, looking slightly abashed. “And now you’ve managed to make me feel guilty about not being with my parents,” he muttered sheepishly.

“Sorry!” Rey groaned, leaning forward. “I wasn’t trying to -”

“I know,” Ben assured her, meeting her gaze again. “Anyway, I’m glad I’m here with you.”

This time, Rey looked away, blushing. “Um, so, you want to watch a movie?”

Ben agreed readily and Rey jumped up, gathering blankets and pillows from other rooms and hooking up her laptop to the TV and popping a giant bowl of popcorn while Ben watched with that small smile on his lips. Parties were not her thing, but movie nights, that she could handle. 

They ended up settling on watching  _Elf,_ mostly because it seemed like a safe choice: light-hearted, cheesy, not straight-up romantic. If they did end up sharing a blanket, it was only because it was the warmest one. And if Rey did end up leaning against Ben, it was only because she was still chilled from playing in the snow. And if Ben did end up putting his arm around her and tucking her into his side, it was only because he felt guilty for shoving snow on her face earlier.

~---~

Rey woke up on Christmas morning feeling more warm and well-rested than she had in a long time. She snuggled deeper in the covers, eyes still closed, letting out a contented sigh. Then she frowned, noting that the surface underneath her wasn’t soft like her bed would be, or even soft like her couch cushions, but a firm kind of soft. 

Her eyes opened to find her cheek pressed into the dark cotton of someone’s occupied t-shirt. Rey gasped, pushing herself up until she was sitting, letting the blankets pool around her waist.

“Merry Christmas,” Ben Solo said, his voice thick with sleep even though the alertness in his eyes meant that he’d probably been watching her sleep on his chest for a while now. “Please don’t kick me out. I swear I’m not a creep. Besides, I think we might be snowed in.”

Rey didn’t bother looking outside. Unlike Ben, she had checked her weather app yesterday and had known there was supposed to be heavy snow overnight and she couldn’t care less right then. Instead she noted the way his long, dark hair was mussed from sleeping on the couch with her, and the way his wide, firm hands that had been wrapped around her last night were still tentatively holding her waist, the way his soft, brown eyes flicked down to her lips before looking back at her. 

Rey leaned down and pressed her lips to his. Ben responded instantly, and she found that his lips were warm and soft, just like him. She smiled into the kiss before pulling away.

“Merry Christmas, Ben,” Rey whispered. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The prompts I used were:  
> 
>  _Ben and Rey meet at an ugly sweater party, and Rey is peeved at this guy (Ben) who isn't wearing an ugly sweater_  
> 
>  _Making snow angels!_  
> 
>  _Ben and Rey take a platonic winter walk on a nearby trail, and when they go back to her place for hot chocolate, things get not so platonic._  
> 
> Thank you to _shewhospeakswiththunder_ for your lovely prompts! I hope this satisfies your request for angst and fluff. I had so much fun exploring a sweet shy Reylo dynamic here - it just kind of poured out onto paper. Hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! 
> 
> Have a wonderful holiday season! 


End file.
